talking about computers and design
by Ralph Grabowski

Sep 12, 2017

Day 2 of the Teigha conference traditionally has been for 1-on-1 meetings, where members can meet with ODA programmers. This year, we have a spillover, however. Several vendors are holding side conferences to talk technically about their software: C3D Labs, LEDAS, and Visual Solutions.

C3D Labs

C3D Labs offers a 3D modeling kernel to ODA members at a reduced price. This is, in fact, the third solid modeling kernel available to ODA members. The ODA has one it developed on its own, a free stop-gap that is good enough for simple 3D modeling, but not good enough for real 3D. Second option is to license ACIS from Dassault Spatial, but it is rumoured to be expensive, partly because the license involves royalties. I don't know.

The third option arrived recently is from C3D Labs of Russia. Their license involves no royalties, and is free for evaluation and educational use. A one-time fee costs $1,000 for non-profits, $5000 for commercial use, and a few other price levels. See figure below. If the price seems high, but apparently is low compared to competitors and considering that updates are delivered every four weeks.

C3D Labs touts how easy it is to get the license: go to the ODA Web site and add it to your shopping basket. Pay, then download.

Note that the ODA version is different from the standard C3D modeler, which we will hear about later this morning. The company also has a converter (translator) and a solver (constraints) which are not available through Teigha, but could be, if customers demand.

As a reminder, 3D solids are mathematically represented by b-rep, short for boundary representation. This represents 3D solids by their surfaces (the part we see), also known as the boundary -- and their insides, which we don't see. The C3D modeler sees the boundary as a series of faces, as illustrated below.

Nikolay Golovanov was instrumental in writing the C3D kernel for KOMPAS-3D some 20 years ago. More recently, the kernel was spun off as a subsidiary company, C3D Labs, whose job is to market and commercialize the software. His thinking on 3D kernels was collected in the book, Geometric Modeling.

One of C3D Labs' customers is here at the ODA conference. MKA Software and Engineering Solutions is from Turkey, and their software generates drawings for steel, one-story buildings. I say "generate" because the user enters parameters, such as area and roof style, and the software generates all of the drawings. The crucial part in steel design are the details of the connections between beams and columns.

This firm used the Open Cascade kernel, but found it was not very fast. They tried a number of other options, but then as new members of the ODA, they decided to switch to C3D Labs. It is so new, it is still under development, and so we didn't get to see a demo.

Difference Between Two C3D Versions

C3D Modeler for Teigha consists only of the modeler and some of the translator. Missing are constraints, rendering, and the full translation unit. See the figure below for the full list of differences:

Nevertheless, C3D modeler handles:

Solid and surface modeling

Direct modeling

Sheet metal

Collision detection, planar projections, and geometric calculations

It runs on all operating systems, including Android and iOS. The API is open for customers to build on top of C3D.

LEDAS

Another software firm using C3D is LEDAS of Russia. They are a developer, so use C3D to develop software for other CAD firms. Their most prominent customer is Dassault Systemes, for whom they worked 12 years.

Today, we are hearing from Nikolay Syntnikov, coo of Ledas. He is describing some of the projects that they are currently involved in. One is for a new CAD program meant for use in Asia, backed by a large investor. He could not name it, as the software is still under development. But the slide below shows some of the parameters of the project.

Also big announcement here is the new LEDAS Cloud Platform, still being developed. It is meant for customers who are loathe to store their drawings on servers hosted by the likes of Autodesk or Onshape. They hope to ship LCP in a couple of months.

Sep 11, 2017

Switching over to the Teigha Cloud presentation, this is for viewing and editing drawings in a Web browser, where the code is stored on a remote server computer. It uses Web Assembly format, which reduces the size of files needed: Library size is half the size, initializes 10x faster, and parses data, such as a 5MB drawing, 30% faster.

The Update Manager opens large drawings on any client device, meaning PC, tablet, or phone. As the user zooms and pan, the Update Manager shows more or fewer entities on the screen -- as shown by the trucks below.

When bandwidth is limited, smaller objects are removed from the screen. This improves the performance. To see the missing details, zoom into an area, and Update Manager sends along the small, missing entities to the screen. To know when to do this, the Web browser code needs to keep sending the server "camera" updates, the camera being the 3D viewpoint.

Teigha Cloud supports the revision manager, as shown below. It can compare different revisions. Revision data is stored on the back end; the front end only sees the revision list. Also supported: grips, markups, works with Teigha Visualize, and support for ACIS, Parasolid, and Revit files.

The Open Design Alliance has been leading Autodesk. The CAD vendor initially refused to release a DWG read/write API, saying DXF was sufficient; but when it saw that ODA was doing well, it countered with its RealDWG API. There is no stand-alone API for dealing with Revit data, until the ODA began developing it; Autodesk has not (yet) responded to it.

Now the ODA is extending DWG's capabilities with revision control. This is essentially an unlimited undo-redo system but with a few more functions -- such as check-out, submit, merge, and update to revision.

The idea is to be able to save progress of your work, restart from any state, develop two or more versions of drawings in parallel, work collaboratively. See the image for an example.

Version keeping data is stored in the DWG file, but the version history and .dwg data is kept in a repository file. The oldest version is at the bottom, the newest at the top.

This allows multi-user editing, because an unlimited number of branches are permitted. Going a step further, it allows distributed working, where engineers are working in two different locations, with the database being in a remote location. It also handles conflict resolution, such as the same circle is changed by one user to 30mm and a second user to 15mm: the conflict is displayed for users to chose one.

Branches are shown in different colors, along with a description of what changed and a time stamp. If this seems to be similar to Onshape, that is no coincidence. ODA has worked with Onshape to figure out how to apply revision control to DWG.

Each branch has a name: there is a master drawing to which branches can be merged. You can compare what was done between revisions, like drawing compare in other software. During collaboration, both users see the same branch pattern.

So now we get into the nitty-gritty details of new APIs from ODA. The first is the new Visualize API. It is a file-independent module meant for handling display duties. It is not tied to DWG or any other file format.

The Visualize API is implemented in object-oriented C++ and works with all common compilers found in Linux, MacOS, and Windows.

It does the following renderings:

wireframe, hidden lines removed, shaded, and other render modes

visual styles such as silhouettes, hidden edges, and transparency

lineweights and line styles

materials

zoom, pan, orbit, and other view changes

Visualize can output to 2D and 3D PDF files.

In summary, Visualize is meant to speed the development of software that might or might not work with DWG files, such as markup software and file viewers -- as well as CAD systems. We are seeing examples of how it can be used as an ACIS SAT viewer, a point cloud viewer, and a DWG viewer.

ODA began in 1998 with a crystal-clear mission to work with .dwg files, to keep pace with new releases of .dwg, and set up as a non-profit. "We take care of member needs, and respond to their needs," says ODA ceo Neil Peterson. The first release was R2000 .dwg in 1999 based on Marcomp code, but the quickly began a rewrite. By 2003 it was no longer just .dwg but now had complimentary functions like importing other file formats and displaying drawings.

TIP: ODA uses the word "rendering" to refer to displaying drawings in wireframe on the screen. It does not mean photorealistic rendering. As you will see later, ODA is starting to use the word "visualize" instead.

By 2011 most bugs were erased, and now there is a proliferation of Teigha-based CAD programs, with millions of users. There are 1,200 members. To create ancillary products, members need to fund it themselves, such as Civil, BIM, and Mechanical specialties. Some new members have joined only because of the Revit work, and have no interest in Teigha.

"There was some strong talk a few years ago, with the cloud replacing the desktop. We don't see that happening. There is a healthy market for cloud applications, and a healthy market for the desktop market. Interest in the cloud is fluctuating." The ODA is not replacing the desktop with the cloud; they are porting the features to the cloud so that it is easier to develop for both. For the ODA, the cloud is a technology, not a service. They aim to provide visualization (display), markup and full editing, and a client-server setup for other applications.

The ODA sees development in AutoCAD slowing, with the last change in .dwg taking five years. As well, the feature list for recent releases of AutoCAD is getting smaller and smaller.

"We have been here for 19 years, and we want to keep this data accessible for another 50 or more years. We don't know what will happen in 50 years -- operating systems might go away, programming languages might go away -- but we want to keep up with it." The ODA is working on making the code base more modular to make it easier to maintain.

DWG is fundamentally good technology, says Mr Peterson, with few limitations. ODA is working to overcome the limitations, such as version control, multi-user editing (two users can make changes to the same drawing at the same time), and so on. ODA is planning new technology with no extra fees for the cloud, visualization, and publishing.

Sep 10, 2017

Alright, here we are in Prague, just waiting for the annual Open Design Alliance conference to begin. This is my fourth time in the city, and I am starting to feel like a local. Even the occasional tourist mistakes me for a local, asking for directions to such and such.

TIP: When visiting Prague, the best thing to do is wander down side alleys to avoid the hordes of tourist groups that now plug up the pedestrian-only streets of the old city. Admire the beautiful buildings and scenes on the nearly-empty back streets, get yourself lost by taking random turns, and then use Google Maps to find your way back again.

About 130 are expected at the 1.5-day conference this year. ODA president Neil Peterson tells me there was a flurry of additional attendees in the last few weeks, forcing him to find a larger meeting room at the hotel.

The Rise of the Clones

This comes as no surprise to me. As some people worry about Autodesk losing its way, customers are looking for alternatives to being locked into subscription-only, (eventually) cloud-only environment that's indifferent to their actual, real-world needs. Competitors to Autodesk large and small depend on the ODA to provide the transition away from Autodesk software -- whether with DWG and RVT files, or with APIs and proxies.

The ODA has become the Microsoft of the CAD world. Most software relies on APIs provided by Microsoft and Apple to make new software development easier. Using these APIs means programmers have a lot less work to do. They don't need to write the code that draws a dialog box or saves data to a file; Microsoft and Apple have already done that for them.

In the same way, the ODA provides APIs to CAD vendors, and the programmers have less work to do. If you CAD software exports models to 3D PDF, opens point clouds, or edits proxy objects, then you probably have the ODA to thank.

Pilgrimage to Prague

And so it is that the competitors to Autodesk come each year to Prague to find out what the ODA has developed this year, for them to add to their CAD programs next year.

An aspect to this conference that I have not seen at any other is that attendees can talk one-on-one with the ODA's programming team -- solve programming problems, work through a bug, or suggest a new feature. All of day 2 is devoted to this one-on-one time.

As the ODA grows in importance, the groups that want to represent their services grows. And so this one-day conference has become a 1.5-day, with a couple sessions for the second day from third-parties who license their code to ODA members at a reduced price.

The conference begins at 9:30am European Central Time (12:30 midnight Pacific time), and I look forward to reporting on it for you.

Jul 03, 2017

One of the headaches of traveling internationally is how to communicate using our cell phones in country to country. Roaming access (as it is known) can be expensive, whether to make phone calls, send text messages, or connect to the Internet.

In the early days of the Internet, we would visit Internet cafes, or borrow the use of an Internet-connected computer from family and friends. With the advent of WiFi, we could tap our laptops into their home or office network systems, assuming they knew the password (some did not!). Today with our phones, we can access the Internet just about anywhere, even on trains and airplanes.

But connecting with WiFi is uncertain. Systems may be very slow (too many people accessing it at the same time), the login procedure onerous (at Beijing airport, you first need to scan in your passport), the terms too much of a fail (around here Telus offers a mere 10 minutes free after handing over your email address, waiting for an email from them from them, clicking on the link they provide...), or the system is tied into the country's spying bureaucracy (as was revealed to occur at Vancouver International Airport).

As a result, I prefer to access the Internet using my phone's cellular data connection when I travel outside Canada. One login for the entire trip, no matter where I am. Here's what I've done about it.

Roam With Your Home Phone

You can use your cell phone in any country it works in, but the charge for roaming is horrendous, as in the old days of long distance phone calls. Hence the horror stories of $1000 phone bills upon arriving back home. Most cell phone services now send warning texts when usage exceeds your normal limits.

You can pay your cell provider an extra amount to use your phone out of country, at a lower cost, but this still is not cheap. Here in Canada, cell providers charge you typically $5/day for USA and $10 a day for international -- but with severe limits. You can do this only if you are on their most expensive monthly plans, and the amount of data is limited to the regular limits of your local plan.

Europe, as of mid-June, banned roaming charges among EU-member counties, although there is a long list of bureaucratic conditions to be met. It is of no benefit to tourists, as the most restrictive restriction is that you have to live in a country for at least six months a year to use that country's SIM card cheaply in other countries.

The advantage to roaming is that you can keep your phone number, and so people reach you easily. If none of the solutions I've listed so far work for you, then read on.

Roam with a Foreign SIM

I live in Canada and travel mostly in the the foreign areas of USA and Europe, and so I have SIM cards with USA and German phone numbers. The US one I got through Canadian firm Roam Mobility, which uses T-Mobile's network in the USA.

To top up the card before a trip, I go to their Web site, select a plan, specify the start date and time, and then pay. Once a plan is set up, I can extend it by a text message, if need be. For Roam Mobility, unlimited talk, text, and data is CDN$5 a day.

Once you arrive in the country, it can take up to half an hour for the phone to connect with the local service provider. This is the only headache I have experienced with data plans. In some cases, you can get help by texting the service provider, such as getting help in setting up the APN, extending the plan, or wondering why there is no connection (yet).

One limitation is that Roam Mobility is meant primarily for calling in the USA and back to Canada. Other countries, not so much. The other is that your phone has to be compatible with the foreign service provider; these days, most are. To check ahead of time, look up your phone's capabilities at this site: http://willmyphonework.net/ . Here are the results for one of my phones:

The German SIM card I got online through Holiday Phone of Sweden. Allow a few weeks for the SIM card to arrive by mail. For Germany, they provide the SIM card from the discount brand Blau.de. Topping it up through Holiday Phone's Web site is, however, cumbersome, as it does not cater to data users. I have to submit sufficient payment, and then contact them by email to specify data use. As they are Swedish, sometimes misunderstandings arise.

As Holiday Phone provides a service, it is more expensive than buying the SIM card and top-up time in Germany directly. The problem with buying the SIM card in Germany is that German law requires you to provide a local address when registering the SIM card. One workaround is to use the address of a friend or relative who lives in Germany. Holiday Phone provides their own address, and so amusingly I receive emails from Blau.de addressed to "Mr Holiday."

To save money, I now buy e15 topup cards from retailers in Germany, and then through Blau.de's Web site specify I also want data (e10 for 1GB for a month). Blau.de's Web site is, unfortunately, only in German and so can be difficult to navigate; Google Translate is helpful here. As a daughter lives in Germany now, I get her to buy me top-up cards before I leave home; she sends me a photo of the topup coupon (often spat out by the local drug store's cash register), and then I have cell service as I step off the airplane.

In both cases, the problem is that I am assigned American and German phone numbers, so now I have three mobile numbers to give people. The advantage is that the talk, text, and data terms are much more generous than what you get through a roaming plan from your local provider.

Roam with a Data SIM

Before I traveled to Japan, I looked at getting a SIM card with data before I left, but what I found would cost me around $100 for a week. Too much! I needn't have worried, as there was plenty of free WiFi where I was in Kyoto. In addition, Kensai airport bristles with booths offering WiFi tethering rentals.

I no sooner arrived back home from that trip when I received an offer from Roam Mobility: their parent company was offering SIM cards for data-only plans in 90 countries (including Japan, ironically) for 75% off, so I ordered two. AlwaysOnline Wireless offers data by the hour (useful for airport layovers), the day, or by the week. Prices vary, depending on the country. For the USA, prices are as follows:

$1/hour for 100MB

$3/day for 500MB

$8 for 15 days for 1GB (plus other plans are available)

For me, these amounts are generous, as I find I go through 100MB-200MB a week when traveling, primarily checking email, using Google Maps, and sometimes visiting Web sites. No Netflix movie watching!

I have a dual-SIM cell phone, so I can put in, say, the Blue.de card for talk and text in Germany, and then use the global roaming card for data. The phone lets me specify which SIM card to use with which service. The data plan can also be used with programs like Skype and WhatsApp to make phone calls and send texts. When I put $5 on my Skype account, I can call regular phone numbers. (Some service providers block use of "free" services like Skype, but AOW does not.)

For my upcoming trip to Prague, I have set up a five-location plan with AOW:

One day of data for when I switch planes in San Francisco. (For the USA, a day is as cheap as 3 hours; I picked a full-day's coverage, so if there are flight delays, I am covered).

Two hours data for when I change planes in Frankfurt.

One week of data in Prague.

Two hours of data again in Frankfurt.

On day of data for changing planes in Chicago. (ORD has free WiFi, finally, but it is impossible to stay connected to it.)

The total came to US31, which I consider cheap for peace-of-mind. For each location, I set the date and time when I want the service to begin. I can top up, when when the plan is empty, using the SIM card to access AlwaysOnline's Web site.

May 29, 2017

[Our coverage of this event earlier in the day was curtailed due to the WiFi failing to connect to the rest of the Internet.]

BIMx is the name of Graphisoft's mobile app for viewing 3D models. It has probably the nicest user interface of all the ones on the market. It uses what Graphisoft calls a "hypermodel," which contains the 3D model, 2D drawings, viewpoints, and so on.

Hypermodels can, of course, be brought over from the desktop to the mobile device using a cloud storage service (like Dropbox) or a direct connection. But to share models with others, such as the on-site construction manager, BIMx now supports NFC [near field communications] and so will send the model to nearby devices (like sending a file via Bluetooth).

But this is practical only for a one-time transfer. What about when the model is updated the very next day? The new BIMx Model Transfer service now solves this problem: upload file to Graphisoft site, and then after this Graphisoft's patented technology uploads only changes.

Everyone gets access to public storage; subscription users get private storage. Push notifications are generated when changes are made to the model. With the notification, you can optionally download the updated model.

BIMx and ArchiCAD can send each other messages. On mobile devices, push notifications alert users to incoming messages, sorted by model (project).

3D models now get a kind of watermark in form of architectural credit. It displays full screen as the model is being opened, and then glides to the corner of the screen.

BIMx now supports split screens on iOS and Android devices running the newest version of the OS. For instance, in a Web browser select a model and it is opened in BIMx.

Future Release of BIMx

Graphisoft recognizes that mobile devices are limited in the amount of RAM, and so are limited in the size of 3D model BIMx can display. This is particularly true with iOS devices, which typically sport a mere 2GB RAM, although iPad Pro has 4GB. The latest high-end Android devices offer 6GB RAM. So, how do mobile apps display very large models?

Graphisoft is working on the next version of BIMx to handle all buildings in a complex or a city -- instead of, say, just one building. This will be done with streaming, where it displays only the portion you are looking at, such as looking westward, or inside a building, or under water. All other polygons are discarded.

Apr 27, 2017

The same week that Bricsys held its press-only Insights conference, Autodesk announced that it was selling off one of its software packages, Pixlr acquired during the Carl Bass era. This otherwise innocuous announcement made a startling admission: "As part of our ongoing business model transition, Autodesk has decided to focus development resources on our core product portfolio." Autodesk is retrenching.

I'll have more about what this means in a future edition of upFront.eZine.

By coincidence in the same week, Bricsys is holding its first-ever conference for members of the CAD press, a two-day event. They are showing off their confidence as a suitor suitable for the affections of disaffected Autodesk customers (and other CAD users, of course). The conference is taking place at the headquarters of Bricsys in Gent, Belgium, housed in the office tower shown in the figure below at the right (image source xavier-donck).

Bricsys designed BricsCAD with the following attributes:

Only one product, albeit available in three price levels and several add-ons

Command set that is similar to AutoCAD, plus unique commands not found in AutoCAD

2D constraints, plus 3D constraints (not in AutoCAD)

Direct editing and modeling, design intent

Add-ons for doing BIM or sheet metal design

Programming interfaces mimic those of AutoCAD to attract third-party developers, and include ARx, LISP, VBA, DCL, Diesel, macros, and more.

Permanent license, with optional subscription plans

Priced at 1/4 of AutoCAD.

Bricsys designed themselves to run lean, with just 135 employees, 90% of which are programmers. By contrast, Autodesk has about 9,500. Running lean also means a mammoth CRM [customer relationship management] system that automatically handles many processes, such as assigning downloaded software to the nearest dealer or tracking bug reports submitted by users. Things are handled through the Web, as much as possible.

Bricsys operates on the franchise model, so it owns no dealer network. Nevertheless, it supports hundreds of dealers in nearly 80 countries.

Apr 26, 2017

"Our philosophy is dramatically different from other CAD vendors, and so we decided to spend some time on the details of this," we are now hearing at the @Bricsys Insights conference, which is running 30 minutes ahead of schedule -- Randall Newton wants you to know.

Bricsys had the chance to start something new as it began seven years ago to add 3D, etc to BricsCAD, so that the mistakes of other CAD firms would not be repeated. The CAD world is different from 30 years ago when parametrics were first introduced [by PTC]. So they implemented new approaches for...

Design History

Constraints

Direct Modeling

When I say "they," I mean the programmers at LEDAS, who were more recently acquired by Bricsys. When writing a new 3D CAD system, vendors like SpaceClaim, Onshape, and Bricsys are not tied to the way things were done decades ago, such as in Pro/E, Solidworks, and Inventor. The list of modern needs include:

Collaboration

Multi-CAD environment

Rapid design changes

Transitions between 2D and 3D

Integration between design and manufacturing

(The needs of designers is not the same as CAM users, but most MCAD vendors don't know that.)

BricsCAD does not do history, as this information is lost anyhow during translation to other MCAD systems. Instead, it infers design intent, which is important when importing 3D models from MCAD systems.

Bricsys had contacted Intergraph ten years ago about porting some of its software to BricsCAD, but frankly BricsCAD could not do it at that time. Once it matured, Bricsys contacted Intergraph again (now owned by Hexagon).

This time Intergraph agreed, but did not want to port just some of their software: they wanted all their software running on BricsCAD at once:

Intergraph wanted a single codestream for BricsCAD and AutoCAD (on which it was running already), the same user interface and workflow, and the same degree of performance.

There were 60 developers working on the porting project, which began in May 2016. There were requests from Intergraph to addition and changes to BricsCAD -- useful for Bricsys filling in holes of the APIs. Examples include overrules, b-rep API, new AcGsGraphicsKernel and AcGsView for 2D and 3D graphics.

Apr 23, 2017

Apr 03, 2017

COFES publishes the attendee list for its annual conference. They sort the list by attendee first name, so I resorted it by vendor name to see who is showing up, and the size of each contingent.

The strongest showing is from the two top dogs in the CAD world, Dassault of France and Siemens PLM of Germany. Smaller firms showing in force include ZWCAD Software from China (including its CEO) and ASCON-C3D Labs from St Petersburg. Autodesk and Bentley Systems are sending just one employee each. The most significant no-show is PTC.

Nov 15, 2016

I came across one of my older posts, in which ZWCAD Software Company thanked its staff for the hard work they put in to a ZWCAD conference. Up to 100 employees worked for three months to plan the conference, according to the press release.

Think of the myriad of details involved, such as sourcing name tag holders, choosing menus for meals, booking venue(s), and deciding what to talk about. All along hoping enough people show up to cover the cost, or if the conference is free, to justify the effort.

Photo showing four of the things things that need to be arranged: contracting the video production company, arranging the food for the breaks, collecting material for the hand-out bags, and inviting users and media to attend

Users show up, us media sidle in, and after a day or three, it's over. Look closely and you see the staff trying not to look exhausted by the end. There is not just the looking after of details during the conference, but also a lot of cheerfulness that needs to exuded for that half-week.

With this post, I want to acknowledge the effort event planners put in, with some conference planning beginning six months out. These people work hard on a big project each year, every year!

- - -

The main thing about conferences, just about everyone agrees, is the socializing (others call it networking). Meeting old friends, some of who live a continent away, and making new ones -- some fleeting, others permanent.

Photo showing five programmers, writers, friends (left to right, from Germany, Australia, USA, Canada, and USA) at a pub during a recent conference, who between them have 132 years of CAD experience

Oct 20, 2016

In addition to the new Communicator features described earlier, the V17 release adds these functions.

ALTERNATE PATH

You can now specify alternate paths for all supported CAD formats. This lets Communicator find standard parts that might be associated with assemblies being imported.

HIDDEN PARTS

When parts are designated as “hidden” in the original CAD files, you can now decide whether to import them or ignore them, depending on your preference. Not importing hidden parts makes the resulting file smaller.

PRODUCT STRUCTURE

When an assembly has components that are nested (both locally and externally), the entire structure is now exported to STEP files. This allows other CAD systems to display the BricsCAD product structure of imported models.

To give you greater flexibility in developing BIM designs, a single drawing file now contains a “site,” which can have multiple “buildings,” with each building holding one or more “stories.” The default drawing holds one building with three stories. You specify properties for the new site, building, and story elements.

BIMPATCH

The new bimPatch command allows you to specify a rectangular area on a block that you previously generated with the bimSectionUpdate command. When you use bimSectionUpdate to regenerate the section, BricsCAD checks if the geometry bounded by the patch has changed. If it is unchanged, then the patch is preserved; if changes occurred, then BricsCAD outlines the patch boundary in red.

ROOMS

The new bimRoom command offers you two ways to specify rooms. One is to click a point in the drawing, from which BricsCAD finds the area enclosed by walls and then places a room marker; the dynamic UCS defines the bottom plane of the room. The room marker is a block consisting of a hatch pattern and data attributes that specify the name, number and area. In the second method, you select a 3D solid, which defines the room in 3D with area and height.

STRUCTURE PANEL

The new Structure panel allows you to examine BIM models organized by spatial containment: it lists building elements by Building, Story, BIM type, and then by composition. You can easily modify the organization as any property, including IFC properties, can be used as to group and sort the elements.

IMPROVED: DRAWING GENERATION

The types of section views are expanded to generate full, half, offset, and aligned sections. When placing a section view, you can specify the depth of the section to limit how much detail is shown, as well as use leaders and rectangular frames to label and highlight detail views. When you dimension generated drawings, they are updated automatically after you change the source 3D model.

The bimSection command has a new option named Detail that creates volume sections. To define the volume box, it prompts you for three corner points and uses the dynamic UCS as the base of the box; the base plane is also the section plane. When you hover the cursor over a bimSection element, you select bimSection from the Quad to create a detail section box that’s based in the same plane as the hovered bimSection.

BricsCAD V17 adds parametric form features to the sheet metal module. “Form features” mimic the process when a forming tool deforms a piece of sheet metal. After the form is applied (using the new Form Features tab of the Tool Palettes panel), you can edit it directly and parametrically through the Properties bar.

The library contains most commonly used form features, such as bridge, louver, and emboss. You can import form features from other systems, and define your own custom forms. When you import geometry from other CAD systems, you can search for similar form features, and then replaced them with ones from your libraries.

FLANGE BENDS

The smFlangeBend command lets you bend an existing flange along a line, obeying the k-factor for given bend radius. The “k-factor” determines how much of the material’s thickness compresses and how much stretches during the bending process. When you import geometry, BricsCAD recognizes incorrectly-made bends and automatically repairs them.

IMPROVED: LOFTED BENDS

Lofted bends gain a feature validation function, which lets you ensure that the bend will work correctly.

The new 3dCompare command opens two drawing files and then reports the differences in 3D solids and 3D surfaces using color coding. This lets you quickly see the changes made to otherwise identical-looking drawings. The differences are represented as separate entities displayed in two viewports – red entities for additions, green for subtractions.

3DCompare dialog box

Simultaneous 3D navigation in both viewports lets you get a closer look at what has changed. You have the option of leaving blocks and frozen layers out of the checking process. When you have the Communicator add-on, you can check differences in 3D models from other CAD systems, making BricsCAD a universal CAD model checker.

Two drawings being compared

ANIMATIONS

The new AniPath command creates movies by rendering views from a point or along a path. This lets you create movies to show collaborators and clients your building designs and other 3D projects. In creating the movie, you have options like specifying the frame rate and resolution, the overall duration, the visual style, and the movie’s file format.

Dialog box for Anipath settings

COMPONENT MATERIALS

Materials in BricsCAD now support physical properties. This means that when you analyze 3D models with commands such as bmMassProp and bmBom, the correct mass is returned no matter how many different materials make up the models. You can use materials provided with BricsCAD, or else define your own. Component materials correctly generate their hatch patterns when shown in section views.

The optional Communicator add-on imports materials with physical properties, should they be assigned to the parts in imported products. When you export sheet metal models, materials are included in DXF and OSM files.

DIMENSION STYLE FAMILIES

The new dimension-style families feature consists of a parent style with one or more child styles. This is a handy way for you to make subtle modifications to just parts of dimension styles. For instance, child styles let you make linear and angular dimensions look different from one another. To create a child style, right-click a parent style in the Dimension Styles explorer, and then select the New Child Style option from the context menu.

Starting a new child style

DOCKABLE PANELS

When you have more than one panel docked to the side of the screen, you can have them share the same space, with each panel getting its own tab. This increases the drawing area, yet gives you all the information you need with a single click.

Content Browser

The Layers and Content Browser are new dockable panels. Whereas before the Layer explorer had to be dismissed, now layer names and their settings are always available to you through the Layer panel while drawing and editing. The Content Browser dockable panel displays DWG and DXF content in a tree-like view from folders that you specify.

Layers in a dockable panel

PLACEVIEW

The new PlaceView command is for when you work with sheet sets. It places named views in layouts.

TWIST

The new dmTwist command lets you twist 3D solids, surfaces, and regions around an axis by an angle that you specify. This makes it easy to create spiral objects, such as drills and augers in MCAD and cockscrews shapes in BIM.

IMPROVED: 3D CONSTRAINTS

BricsCAD V17 introduces the cone half-angle constraint, which constrains the size and angle of cone shapes. You can now apply 3D constraints to 2D entities, such as lines, xlines, rays, circles, and arcs. New measuring modes are available for circles, cylinders and spheres. The arguments of 3D constraints are now displayed and selected through the Mechanical Browser.

IMPROVED: GETTING STARTED

When you start BricsCAD V17, the redesigned Getting Started dialog lets you easily select from user profiles and work spaces, open existing drawings, start new drawings, and access educational resources, like video tutorials.

New interface for the Getting Started dialog box

IMPROVED: MOVE

When you use the dmMove command on edges, BricsCAD now forces adjacent faces to rotate, instead of moving them along with the edges. This lets you create, with a single click, complex roof-like forms from imprinted edges.

IMPROVED: PARAMETRIC COMPONENTS

Parametric components now define 3D solid features to be created on insertion. This lets you place user-defined features, such as parametric holes, form features, and ribs. BricsCAD does this by applying Boolean operations to the target 3D solid. You can change the visibility each component through the new Exposed property for parameters. Parameters take units, which lets you insert metric components into imperial documents and vice versa.

IMPROVED: THICKENING

The dmThicken command now works with more than just surfaces. You can use it to create tube-shaped objects from 2D curves like lines and circles, with just a couple of clicks.

Sep 12, 2016

For the first time, CAD users will be able to access Revit model files independently from Revit. This was the motivation to open up Revit with the new API from Open Design Alliance:

Competitors want to interoperate with Revit files in a standalone solution through an independent organization. The only API currently available is based on dot.Net and requires a seat of Revit. Reads, displays, and writes RVT and RFA files, and works on Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile.

As of January, there will be new license options: binary or source-code; fees to be determined. Get updates through the new Revit page on teigha.com.

Native Support for RVT and RFA Files

(RFA files are used for large models, while RVT is the native format of models.)

Reads 2011 through 2017 formats, and writes back to 2017 format; for saving, older files must be converted to 2017

General TfObject interface for all classes, custom read interface for 1600 classes, with work continuing on more classes

Renders (in the sense of displaying in 3D) Revit geometry; for 2D data ODA uses its own format

Revit has over 3800 classes (some of which have no data, 2700 have data) but all must be read

ODA's API does full and partial loads of RFA and RVT files; Teigha Kernel is used to parse the database

Teigha BIM displays 3D models in orthogonal and shaded, and does multi-view sheets; see figure below

ALso

Also handles connectors, dimensions, rectangular clipping, and so on.

Future Plans

The ODA has the following plans for immediately improving its Teigha BIM:

Custom read interfaces for all interfaces

Improvements to rendering (display), such as support for all elements

Converting 2011+ files to the latest version of RVT

Initial version for creating elements

Selections

Q&A

Q: What do you mean by "custom" read interface?

A: We have our own interface.

Q: One of the complaints I have from third-party developers is that Autodesk has not provided API access to all aspects of Revit, and some of it is poorly documented. Do you have as many API calls as Autodesk, or is your implementation complete?

A: We are reading all data in the files.

Q: Will it read IFC [industry foundation classes, used as the interchange format between BIM programs] files?

A: We concentrate on RVT files, which is huge. IFCs will have to wait. [Update:] No IFCs are used for reading or writing.

Q: How does the file open speed compare with Revit?

A: We are slower, but for complex drawings is quite good. The difference is about 2x slower.

Q: When will the binaries be available?

A: All binaries are available to BIM SIG members, and all members in January.

Q: Do you expect 100% write compatibility with Revit?

A: It reads all geometry and other data, rendering is not 100%. The writing function is still be implemented, as is the ability to save in earlier releases. The RVT format is quite complex, and so there is no byte-by-byte write interface. But customers can write their model data.

(Check out the Twitter stream on @upfrontezine for additional coverage of the ODA 2016 conference, as well as Randall Newton's coverage at @RSNatWork.)

The ODA has figured out how to make DWG files suitable for client-server computing, where it is important to know who made which changes. Every entity in the DWG file is history-aware. History also makes it practical for multi-user editing.

To reduce collisions when more than one person edits the same drawing, ODA is figured out a way to integrate collision checking. This alerts users to the conflict, but it is up to the users to resolve the collision. Remember that only changes are saved, such as a transformation or a color.

Now we are getting a demo of multi-user DWG editing. One user makes a change, and then clicks Commit to save the change back to the server. Now it is possible to have changes committed automatically, but this is left to the developer.

Q: Did you get help from Onshape on creating these systems?

A: We received inspiration from Onshape. {Chuckles in the audience.]

Q: Can areas of the drawing being locked out so that other users cannot edit them?

A: This is not implemented by ODA; but developers are free to implement it on their own.

Q: How does Commit work?

A: It merges all of the history files.

Q: Is a network connection needed?

A: You don't need a persistent network connection. Changes can be made offline, and then changes are committed when you are back online. But editing offline can lead to more conflicts, and you might be surprised at what the DWG file looks like when you are back online.

Q: Is it possible to turn on revision control on drawings that are already underway?

A: Yes, it can be turned on at any point.

Q: Do you plan to implement it for Microstation DGN files?

A: I would say no, we have no such plan.

Q: What happens when two changes are committed at the same time?

A: It is not possible, as to the server there is no such thing as simultaneous commits.

Coffee is over (or, in my case, break for tea), and now Ilya Zavyalov is telling us about large data and multiple format for Teigha Cloud.

To handle large drawings on the cloud, some rendering is done on the server side and some on the client side (ie, in the Web browser). The server must, however, must have access to view accelerators, which is not common and so expensive. For rendering to happen on the client, however, it must be powerful enough, especially for large drawings.

There are, fortunately, techniques to make this easier:

Graphic format -- it is a database, and can be compressed

Data streaming -- used by all cloud applications; allows us to start viewing and editing the file before it is fully loaded

Partial loading -- load only part of the drawing, such as a zoomed in area, or area being edited; takes up less memory

Level of Detail -- not sending all geometric information about each element, which reduces the number of MB that need to be transmitted

Here is a view of the format used by Teigha for cloud graphics:

Teigha Cloud supports the following formats (plus one more to be announced later today):

Mark Up Editing

To add mark up editing to the cloud, they added polylines, circles, text, undo, and erase. From these basics, other markup tools can be added, such as leaders.

ODA chose OpenGL ES2 because it is cross-platform, supports mobile devices, is a strong standard, and is compatible with WebGL. This last item is important, because WebGL is used for cloud-based apps. The adoption of OpenGL allows for an immediate improvement in rendering quality of visual styles, like realistic, hidden, and so on. ODA has several dozen predefined visual styles employing 60 properties - including obscure ones like Jitter effect, opacity override, and shadows type.

It also allows per-face, per-vertex, and per-pixel lighting.

Visual style effects to be added soon:

Intersection edges

Overhang and jitter

Order-dependent effects

Q: Are these rendering capabilities included in the CAD system when the developer implements the latest version of Teigha?

A: Yes, they are supported by the latest release of Teigha -- as well as more capabilities in upcoming releases.

Neil Peterson heads up the Open Design Alliance, and started off the two-day conference here in Prague with several assertive statements: "We have been known as 'the DWG guys', but today we support seven file formats. We promote open standards, and not just for DWG. We don't set standards, we are active developers; we are not a legacy organization, we are not a maintenance organization."

With Autodesk not updating the DWG format for several years, ODA has been able to redirect resources to other areas. Members get access to

Teigha Kernel (new term)

Teigha Drawings (DWG, DXF, DGN)

Teigha PRC (3D PDF)

Teigha Architecture (ADT)

Additional licensing fees needed to access the following, because they are developed separately from ODA:

Teigha Mechanical

Teigha Civil

Teigha BIM (new)

The latest version of DWG is still based on the version rewritten back for Release 13 in the mid-1990s, and so it is not efficient for network use, such as server-client computing (aka "the cloud"). It does have incremental saves, but this does not show you what changed; it has no history. ODA is working on saving revision history through the Undo mechanism. This is an efficient way to send modification transactions as small amounts of information.

Teigha supports all operating systems, desktop and mobile, including some that don't appear in market share pie charts.

Teigha for the Cloud

Teigha Cloud is not specific to DWG, but handles many file formats. It does data streaming, spatial filtering, and levels of detail to help speed the delivery of vector data over the Intertubes:

Data streaming breaks the file into small chunks

Spatial filtering hides entities that do not appear in the viewport

Levels of detail displays entities with less detail when zoomed out

ODA is first to add history of drawing modifications to DWG, not even Autodesk has this function. We will hear later today how it works. History is saved in a separate file, to ensure the Teigha version is compatible with Autodesk's DWG.

Multi-user editing is currently at alpha level as a technology preview. I think the speaker said it would ship in December.

Apr 27, 2016

OK, here we are back in the Imperial ballroom of the Fairmont hotel, downtown Chicago, for day 2 of the Vectorworks user conference. The keynote speaker is Eva Franch, who, it appears to me, combines art and architecture. In a few minutes we will find out...

Her's is to question: how do we build, how do we construct. She sees three types of architects. Those who just repeat what has been done before (not ones she would approve of), those who try to destroy what was done before (avant gardes, also disapproved of), and those who who have do what is new yet matches the needs of clients. "Sometimes we are driven by profits, sometimes we are driven by principles, sometimes by other things."

She worked on a project trying to understand successful architecture, producing a 1,200-page book describing 1000 projects by 200 firms. Architecture is not done by the star architects whose names we know, but by the staff in the offices. To document this, she had a film maker put a camera on truck that moved horizontally through many architectural offices, showing the staff at work.

But more than architecture, the organization has a storefront in New York City that never got a building permit and has so far survived 25 years in a narrow triangular shape. It has been rebuilt over the years in a variety of experiments. They have wondered about the problems raised by the Occupy movement, rape on campus, sustainability -- yet she admits they have no solutions to the problems, just questions. I am guessing she might vote for Sanders; I am wondering where the group gets their funding, as she says they are a non-profit.

Apr 26, 2016

Alight, here we are, awaiting the start of the keynote address by new CEO Biplab Sarkar. He was the previous CTO, being at Vectorworks for 16 years, taking on work like integrating Parasolid into the software. Before this, he worked at PTC and Intergraph. He replaces Sean Flaherty, who is now cso (chief strategy officer) for Nemetschek Group, the Germany company that owns Vectworks, Bluebeam, Graphisoft, allPlan, and other CAD-related software.

Left: new ceo Biplab Sarkar; right: former ceo Sean Flaherty

(In addition, Darick DeHart is new vp of product management, and Steve Johnson is new vp of product development.)

Starting late, Sean Flaherty explains the delay: he arrived and there was no badge for him. Then he had to make sure that they spelled Nemetschek correctly. So, what does a ceo do, he deadpans. Well, not a lot. Sit in meetings, talk some, make a few jokes. He is the first native-English speaker in Nemetschek's executive, and so he gets sent press releases for checking -- a good match for his computer science degree, he jokes. Really, though, he says being ceo is an HR job: hiring the right people to run the company. "We are going to double [the number of emplyees] again over the next four years."

Vectorworks is growing having doubled its staff in the last three years, offices in more cities. Problem was, he explains, he was a part-time ceo, being also on the Nemetschek Advisory Panel.

He admits that Nemetschek products are not well known outside of Germany, and so his job now is to change this. It is true. One of the problems is that the many products are not well integrated with each other. For example, it acquired Bluebeam 1.5 years ago, yet none of its Postscript technology is in Vectorworks or Graphisoft or allPlan...

As Mr Sarkar speaks, we are learning about his plans for the company. Lighting design will be integrated into Vectorworks. He is emphasizing OpenBIM so that models can talk between different programs. Vectorworks is the only product to combine BIM with SIM (site information modeling); their Landmark software supports IFC. Increasing use of Parasolid features in Vectorworks, such as extrude with join adjacent and convert to subdivisions. One new feature that garnered applause is the connection to Dropbox and Google Drive. A simple slider changes the amount of point cloud data displayed.

This being my first time at a Vectorworks user conference, what's it like? (Previously I was at press-specific events hosted by Vectorworks.) Well, we have about 600 users here from a lot of countries. At yesterday evening's social event I heard a lot of German -- and so I could practice my German. Six hundred seems to be number common to several user events I attend, such as from Bricsys and Siemens PLM. The number seems rather tiny compared to the eight or ten thousand that show up at Solidworks World and Autodesk University. But 600 is a number that does not overwhelm. In addition, I've been told there are 15 media here.

Mind you, the name is not "user conference." This is the Vectorworks Design Summit. Nevertheless, the format is the same as at most other such conferences: keynotes in the morning, educational sessions in the afternoon, and a social event in the evening. Last night, for example, we walked over to SPiN, a bar that features dozens of ping pong tables. Tonight I look forward to seeing the Impressionist paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago.

See you soon, with coverage of the keynote address by the company's new CEO.

Feb 17, 2016

Alight, here we are in what is normally beautiful downtown Vancouver, but the low cloud and light rain is hiding the snow-covered mountains and making the harbour front generally gloomy. No matter, we are warm and dry inside the Pinnacle Hotel's three ballrooms, a hotel that's old and therefore has character missing from shiny new ones. Here's the view from the conference area after lunch...

The theme of this conference is Beyond BIM, looking beyond just design. So we have topics like Augmented Reality, Mobile, and Computational Design.

Beyond BIM

The first suspension bridge was designed in 1570 in Italy, but the first one was not built until 1820 in USA. Problem was the first ones spent their time collapsing, and so the design was abandoned for a 100 years. "Things that don't first go smoothly out of the gates will eventually catch on, if they are a good idea," says the keynote speaker, Jeff McLellan of BFL Insurance.

Being from an insurance company, Mr McLellan is describing how slowly the insurance industry is slowly becoming aware of the role of BIM, some 15 years after the software launched. Even the use of CAD was seen as a extra, not integral to engineering firms. So leaping forward, he is pretty sure that AR (augmented reality) will make a big shift in BIM as the project can be viewed on-site before it is built: "Maybe it would look better if the stair is moved over 25 feet."

What will not change is that designs are still done by design professionals, and things constructed by contractors. The biggest benefit from BIM, he says, is clash detection and how much it money it saves. Another big advantage is pre-fabrication so that buildings go up faster. In England, he has seen bathroom modules that drop into place, ceiling racks for hospitals, and in Norway apartment modules.

One of his concerns is the long-term availability of models; models have to be around for 15 years (I think he said), but the question is when that 15 years starts.

BIM and Prefabrication of Timber Structures

Lucs Epp of Structure Craft now is telling is that BIM is about comminication. He likes the idea of using sketching to think about designs, but today we tend to go directly to 3D modeling. (See figure below.)

The first 3D model he worked on was ten years ago the Richmond Olympic Oval (see figure below) using Inventor. More recently he worked with Grasshoper to create a exhibition building in Cairo that could not be designed with Revit.

Creating undulating or warped shapes is easier and cheaper with wood than using steel, because wood can be stacked effectively in an offset manner.

He is showing us how his firm used Grasshoper inside Rhino to simulate the construction of a building, even down to how much material each truck load can handle. The installation of each wood panel is sequenced. Important, he says, when Minneapolis union labour rates are US$80 an hour. Most of it was installed in one week. "The power of prefabrication is immense," he concludes.

BIM Institute for Africa

We're back froom the break, and Vaughn Harris is telling us about the Internet in Africa. As you might expect, there isn't much. The highest number is 48% for South Africa, compared to closer to 90% for Europe and North America -- percent of the population using the Internet. For mobile use, the numbers are reversed. All of Africa averages 148 cell phones per 100 population, but only 48 in Canada. (Well, Canada was late coming to cell phones, given the sparse, thin band of population along the northern US border.)

OK, now he's jumped to to the topic of Information vs BIM -- I'm not sure what he is relating this to Aftica. OK, with a bit of a detour, I see where he is goingL he says they are using Twitter hashtags to connect data in projects.

Augumented and Virtual Reality

And now we are into the future prospects for BIM. Ailyn Mendoza of IrisVR is using her laser pointer to show the most important part: a wineglass. They've been working on Prospect for two years, using standard VR equipment like Oculus Rift and HTC Vivie, reading files from 3D systems like Revit, SketchUp, and Rhino.

The software converts 3D models to the VR device. You use an XBox controller or keyboard to control the view. Layers can be toggled, height can be adjusted to your own height. They are working on annoations, take snapshots, a dollhouses view, and so on.

They have 5,000 beta testers, of which 2,000 own a Rift.

Challenges in BIM Production

It's panel time! We have five panelists talking about how they use technology, how they are managing BIM.

The speaker from Lecor says that the word for him is "blur" -- the bluring between design and construction. The speaker from Kasian says the biggest problem is acting like we are working together, but people don't actually want to share drawings. The architect from Dialog says the biggest worry about sharing is liability, but BIM increasing acuracy, there is less liability to worry about. He thinks that if we share more, we are more willing to forgive inconsistancies in models.

Not everyone benefits, and so people have to be incentivized to share models, says the panelist from the University of British Columbia. "We have to think about BIM in procurement mode," she says. "And we need more resources -- like standards -- tailored for Canada." We are in a transition period, a transition period that seems to be taking a very, very long, she concludes. Canadians are far behind the USA, where government departments and states are already mandating BIM. In Europe, many software packages are being used, and so IFC will be the platform, not BIM; it's not the software, it's the process.

Back from Lunch!

We're back from lunch. One thing I gotta say about CanBIM is that they really fed us. I am stuffed. I had lunch with CanBIM president Allan Partridge, where we spoke for over an hour about the role of CanBIM and his vision for the future of BIM. This interview will appear in next Monday's upFront.eZine newsleter. Subscribe by sending me a email at grabowski@telus.net

The Tao of BIM is CAM

We are all familiar with the frustratrion BIM proponents have over getting BIM throughout the construction process, with silos keepsing 3D models and data migrating from building designer to construction contractor to facility operator. Of all the BIM conferences I've been to, the theme is always the same: BIM is wonderful, but why isn't it pervasive yet. At today's confernce, too.

But at today's conference, I detect a role for BIM that goes beyond the architect's office: CAM. Who'd have thought that the enclave of MCAD is the vehicle for spreading BIM. We are seeing lots of presentation today that talk about using BIM for generating the data for fabrication, whether wood, steel, or piping. CanBIM's president also emphasized to me the importance of data over drawings.

MobileBIM

Carl Storms from Imaginit Technology is asking the question, "Why don't we [use a mobile workflow]?" Audience replies, "Too slow." "Fear of technology." "Too expensive." Mr Storms counters that the cost is coming down, although he admits that the time is missing to implement. One of the problems of not changing is that you get left behind.

Actual data from on-site punch lists input onto smart devices that upload the data to the cloud, no more reading someone elses handwriting

More accurate information by recording it directly at the site

Save and transfer information, like take pictures, record coordinates, and so on

Beyond BIM Panel

Getting towards the end of the day, we are back to panel mode. This time the topics is what is the future of BIM.

The panelist from HDR is looking at graphics technology outside of CAD and BIM that can handle huge models, such as in gaming -- as well as the use of sensors. Clark Builders wants to see the model go into the field, to be directly used by contractors. StructureCraft feels that construction is really lagging when it comes to software; his firm is increasingly linking parametric models to the Web.

Oct 27, 2015

Alright, here we are in Cincinnati for the annual Solid Edge University event. Usually, it's in June to coincide with the annual release of the namesake software, but this year it's in October, and maybe later we'll be able to find out why.

We're starting this morning with the keynote by John Miller, he the senior vice president of mainstream engineering software -- which is the way Siemens says that he is in charge of Solid Edge and FeMap. The theme this year is "Design without Boundaries." Better yet, this is the 20th anniversary of Solid Edge, which originated with Intergraph's Project Jupiter initiative, old timers will recall. This is why Solid Edge is headquartered in Alabama instead of Munich.

The key differentiator of Solid Edge with its similarly-priced competitors (Solidworks, Inventor, Creo, and so on) is Synchronous Technology, which is best described as super-charged constraints. But it is not easy for users to get into it, and so a theme of every Solid Edge University is encouragement to get into SE.

In the photos of John Miller (above and at right) you can see part of a giant statistic, "61% happier." According to a survey (I don't know the source, sorry), people who use SynchTech are 61% happier with Solid Edge than those who don't.

Many Solid Edge users simply employ the software like a Solidworks or Pro/E: a history-based parametric modeler. Switching to SynchTech is a bit of brain tease. And so Siemens PLM is always promoting the great differentiator. At breakfast, I met the designer of cattle feed lots. He is the opposite, he told me. He always works with SynchTech but now needs to learn "ordered" modeling, Siemens' name for non-SynchTech modeling.

Other tidbits from Mr Miller: Microsoft Surface is the sole Platinum sponsor of this event, and there are a number of demo stations where attendees can try out the latest Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. It always has been Microsoft's desire to drive up the price of Windows-based computers, and so the most expensive SurfaceBook positively beams at $3,200; stylus included. I'll never be able to afford that.

There are now over 200 third-party developers with add-ons for Solid Edge, some of which are showing their products here. And then there is the online Solid Edge App Marketplace where "We have a nice selection, with more to come." Not sure of the official tally of attendees, and so I am guestimating 400-500.

Ross Robotics

Fascinating talk by Phillip Norman of Ross Robotics, an artist who became an engineer using Solid Edge to invent a universal connector. Think of Lego having only one brick that can handle any type of connection, including circular ones. Anyhow, this led to him forming a company that builds simplified non-metallic robots for dangerous locations like CERN's high magnetic fields.

One thing that potential customers wanted was a low slung robot (low slung so that it would not tip over) that could travel through unexpected terrains and yet not get caught up on its underbelly. Take a look a the wheel at left: those rubbery legs open up to grab edges; a secondary tread is operated by the wheels ensure that when the bottom drags, it becomes like a tank tread, and so cannot get hung up.

Speaking with Mr Norman during the break, he admitted he forgot to mention during his speech that he uses SynchTech extensively. "Once you figure it out, you'd be crazy to go back. It does so many things for me automatically, so fast." He also mentioned that his robots have a lot of artificial intelligence to self-configure, to understand their environment.

The first time he tried out his tank tread idea, it was sending the robot over some local train tracks. He was video taping the robot's movement, but the resulting movie jumped around so much, because he was giggling with joy that his idea worked!

Siemens isn't just all gray and blue engineering software. It's also trying new software, like Catchbook -- simplified parametric software that converts hand sketches on tablets into straight lines and proper curves. It's not yet released, "coming in Fall 2015."

Ken Hosch is director of innovation, research, and strategy, and he is on stage to show off this tablet-based software to let more people be involved in design: helping people draw freehand accurately: it uses D-Cubed's DCM constraint manager to covert freehand ink into curves; edit curves; write notes; place dimensions; creates PDFs, use a stylus to draw and erase; and so on.

Basic entities are lines, circles, arcs, ellipses, and splines. To select, draw around the entities, and then choose an action. Scribble action erases, making breaks in curves, removing entire curves, or the entire drawing. When the software notices a thing is drawn a second time very similarly, Catchbook makes it the same size as the first, and aligns it.

Being parametric, entities are moved intelligently and are snapped to geometric features. Most commands are not executed consciously: nearly every action is done with the stylus or by touch.

Commands appear in a toolbar-like control near the pen. Multiple drawings are stored in binders to create collections.

During the break, I learned why Solid Edge University is in October, instead of June with the software release. Siemens felt that its customers should have experience with the new release before coming to the University to take a deeper look at the new functions.

Applications engineer Craig Ruchuti is demoing to us what's new in the latest release-- wait, he just insulted us in the media as being not bright enough to figure out math. (See figure at right.) I guess he doesn't realize that some of us have our engineering degrees, even a PhD, but we love to write.

Well, now I have to stop writing, because there are no electrical outlets provided for the media to keeping powering our laptop computers.

Oct 25, 2015

I snapped this photo using my Galaxy K Zoom smartphone, which welds a 10x zoom lens onto an Android phone.

In this case, I used a 4.9x zoom to foreshorten the trains, making them seem more massive. The zoom brings closer the lone Deutsche Bahn worker between the tracks at Munich's main train station. Before posting here, I modified the image using Picasa's Cinemascope filter that emphasizes the red color through saturation, and brightens the scene.

Oct 15, 2015

The next session at the 3D Insiders European Forum is a tips and tricks session for 3D InterOp. This is Spatial's translator, translating between various 3D CAD and standard formats. For this session, I think I'll post some of the slides, as the topic is a bit beyond me.

As I mentioned in the previous blog posting from 3D Insiders European Forum, new features that appear each year in CAD programs are first often times developed by technology providers like Spatial. For

While 3D modeling currently uses precise modeling (b-rep) successfully, it is not so good for organic models, like bones, point clouds, voxels (volume pixels), additive manufacturing (ie, 3D printing), and geology.

What's next for 3D from Spatial is polyhedra: polygonal modeling.CGM Polyhedral is an add-on to the ACIS modeler, and so is licensed separately.

Today, however, working on both precise (traditional 3D solids) and polyhedra data results in polyhedral objects. By V2017, however, Spatial hopes that such operations result in the precise data also being retained.

Hybrid modeling is where the CAD system works with exact (b-rep) and non-exact (polyhedral) geometry at the same time. One interface for both kinds of data.Data comes from raw triangular mesh data, or an ACIS body, or STL data through 3D Interop. Data is stored in the usual SAT/SAB file.

Operators that work with polyhedral data include offset, planar slice, healing, Booleans, visualization, queries, and checking. Certain some downstream operations may not be supported, because precise geometry is lost, such as blending. To get around this, entities like regions not involved in p-operations are not converted to polyhedral. Spatial plans in the future to remove this limitation.

Whether or not CAD vendors implement it depends on their target market. I asked one CAD vendor if he would implement it, and he said, "Maybe. It depends on what our customers want."

As the polyhedral modeler is license separately, customers of CAD vendors without the license will only be able to view the data. There were many questions from the floor on this issue. One asks, "Will we be able to touch the data without a license?" No. Inside the ACIS file, polyhedral data is just one more data type.

Here we are at conference #4 in Europe, this time at the European Forum for 3D users of Spatial's toolkits. This division of Dassault Systemes is best known for the ACIS modeling kernel, but also is the "retail" source for the modeling kernel used by Dassault's software, CGM, the 3D Interop collection of translators, and additional software.

I miss Day 1, because I was on the other side of Munich taking in the Bricsys International Conference. Imagine my surprise, walking into the meeting room on Day 2 and seeing the ceo of Bricsys (from the conference earlier this week), the cto of Grabert (from the conference last week), the president of the ODA (from the conference last month) -- like a reunion. .

Day 2 User Experiences

Spatial is kind of like the ODA, so that they don't sell to end users, but provide technology used by CAD software companies. Often, Spatial and ODA implement new functions, which their CAD customers adopt, and then tout that they did it themselves.

And so it is a bit odd to hear them talking about user experiences, when the "users" are CAD vendors.

Robert Graebert is chief technology officer of Graebert Gmbh and is at the 3D Forum to describe his company's use of CDS (constraint system) and ACIS for solid modeling. More than 7 million users since 1994, with Graebert CAD software used by Dassault Systemes (heh, the loop), Corel, Onshape, ProgeCAD, CADopia, MC4, and SKA.

"Ideally you want to take your technology to all platforms," he said. And so Graebert has done this with its core software being written to be independent of the operating system. As for ACIS, Mr Graebert gives credit to the ODA for working with Spatial to integrate ACIS into Teigha; all Graebert needs to do is add the user interface to implement the solid modeling functions. Graebert actually provides its OEM customers two versions: ACIS view-only and ACIS editing.

Graebert had more work in integrating CDS constraint system, and was only the second CAD company to do so, according to Spatial. Now Mr Graebert is describing how they did the process. "Some things you might want to consider," he notes, because there isn't a one-to-one correspondence in entities types.

- - -

Next up is Extend3D with Werklicht Pro [German for worklight], a Munich company that does augmented reality for manufacturing. You really have to see the video to see how it works, but I'll try here. Targets on the piece being manufactured, like a transmission, position a camera that also uses two rotatable mirrors to accurately locate a green laser. The laser tells the worker where to place his tool, such as a drill.

The video showed how as the transmission was jostled back and forth, the camera-laser was able to follow along, albeit with a bit of a delay, say a second or so. Now, how does this connect to the CAD system?

Werklicht uses SpaceClaim to position the markers on the 3D model. When physical markers are put on the same spots on the transmission, the software is able to know where to position the laser.

One problem, the speaker noted, that bolt positions currently have to be imported into SpaceClaim as CSV files! In the future, they hope to add automatic target placements.

Now we hear from Erik de Keyser, ceo of Bricsys. He notes that they have 250,000 paying customers, the first time I have heard a customer number from the company. He emphasizes that these are paying customers, perhaps a reference to Graebert having 7 million non-paying customers!

He reminds the audience that even though Autodesk is pushing 3D, their two primary products -- Inventor and Revit -- have file formats different from each other and from AutoCAD.

In contrast, BricsCAD does MCAD and BIM using DWG. While AutoCAD has only 2D constraints, BricsCAD also has 3D constraints. This is the result of four years of effort in implementing their own constraint (not the one from Spatial, ahem), direct modeling, surface modeling, deformable modeling, and a multi-CAD translator.

He gets into a discussion of just how unsuitable Revit is to users, who typically start concepts in SketchUp, switch to modeling in Revit, and then do detailing and plans in AutoCAD -- and each one with a different file format.

Gotta say one thing: Bricsys has the nicest slide set of the presenters this morning! (We also heard from a 4th company, but I had difficult following what they were offering.)

Oct 14, 2015

The conference facilities here are the best I've even sat it, which is a relief to us in the CAD media who have had to deal with no tables; tight seating; bad sight lines at some conferences of other CAD vendors.

CEO Keynote

With my rant out of the way, we are hearing the keynote from the ceo of Bricsys, Erik de Keyser. Both he and the ceo of Graebert Gmbh represent the most under-rated software systems in the CAD world. Well, maybe one day the rest of the CAD world will clue in.

Whereas Graebert is emphasizing OEM'ing on many kinds of platforms (desktop, mobile, Web), Bricsys is concentrating on many kinds of CAD activities based on the DWG format. So, for example, where Autodesk screwed itself by having a different file format for its AEC software, and a different file format for its MCAD software, so translation has been a nightmare for customers using more than one type of CAD design in their offices. By contrast, Bricsys was smarter than Autodesk, because their AEC software uses DWG, their MCAD software uses DWG.

The most startling announcement so far this morning is how much Bricsys spends on R&D. Most firms spend 5% to 20%; Bricsys spends more than 40% of its revenues on research and development. (See figure above.) That explains the volume of enhancements that it adds to BricsCAD each year, along with mid-year updates.

The company's ambition is collectively be better than the original. By collectively, Mr de Keyser means his company and its partners. By original, he means Autodesk and its AutoCAD.

He points out that the combination of DWG and his Communicator software (data exchange with most standard and MCAD programs) means BricsCAD can play with the big boys, like PTC and Catia. (See figure at left.)

ODA and Bricsys

Neil Peterson, president of ODA, seems to on the same road tour as me, earlier being in Prague and Berlin for other conferences. The Open Design Alliance is the technical organization developing full access to the DWG file format for its 1,250 members, and so keeps Autodesk honest. Here in Munich, he notes that Bricsys is the ODA's strongest members, providing the most amount of code to improve DWG access and peripheral software the ODA provides members.

[Disclosure: Bricsys paid for part of my airfare, two nights hotel accommodation, and some meals.]

There are a lot more people at this year's conference than previous years. (See figure above.) I am guesstimating 350-400, consisting of third-party developers, users, Bricsys staff, and of course those of us in the CAD media.

BricsCAD V16

One highlight of this annual event is learning what's going to be new in the next release of BricsCAD. I say "one highlight" because those of us who are beta testers already know all about it. Here is a list of new functions in V16:

TRANSPARENCY can be set for selected entities, or for all entities on a layer. CETRANSPARENCY controls the transparency value; HPTRANSPARENCY sets transparency for new hatch entities separately.

GDIPLUS is now the default graphics device on the Windows platform, replaceing the GDI device (which does not support transparency). Transparency supported for plotting, but is disabled by default for performance.

BMOPENCOPY creates new document containing a copy of component definition for the selected instance. BMREPLACE change definition file for single or several mechanical component.

ASSOCIATIVE ARRAYS allows changes to propagate throughout the array by maintaining relationships between the items. Properties of each item can be individually overridden and the content of an item can be modified. ARRAYPATH distribute entities along a (portion of) a path (line, polyline, arc, circle, ellipse, spline, helix or 3D polyline). ARRAYPOLAR arrays in a circular pattern; ARRAYRECT arrays any number of rows, columns, and levels. ARRAYASSOCIATIVITY toggles associativity for new arrays. ARRAYEDIT edits associative arrays and their source objects. ARRAYCLOSE saves or discards changes made by the ARRAYEDIT command. ARRAYEDITSTATE indicates whether or not the drawing is in the array editing state.

BIMINSERT now accept CTRL to switch dynamically between entering width and height of the door, and distance to neighbor-entities. Hovering on an existing door or window and choose BIMINSERT in the quad to place the same window or door, with the same parameter values. BIMREPOSITION repositions an existing door or window using the same dynamic dimensions as in BIMINSERT. BIMFLIP mirrors a window or door left/right or in/out with one click in the quad. Assign a different definition file to an inserted window or door using the 'File' property in the properties panel. Parameter values are copied to the new insert if applicable. BIMDRAG allows pressing CTRL to dynamically place a parallel copy. BIMSECTION: work in progress. Drawing generation for BIM projects is being reworked and will switch from using Drawing Views to using enhanced SectionPlane definitions.

DEFORMABLE MODELING does freeform modifications of 3D solids and surfaces and imported geometry by deforming their faces and edges. DMDEFORMPOINT transforms a point lying on the specified face. DMDEFORMMOVE moves or rotates edges. DMDEFORMCURVE moves a set of its edges to the specified set of target curves. See figure at left for before (imported model) and after (after V16 is done editing the imported modelling using deformation tools).

GEOGRAPHIC COORDINATE REFERENCE SYSTEMS add support for projections and coordinate reference systems for New Zealand, North America, Canada, Russia and the Russian Commonwealth of Independent States.

MTEXT now creates and edits multiple columns.

SURFACEs are now fully supported in 3D modeling. Direct modeling commands and 3D constraints can now be applied to surface entities and regions. Applying direct modeling commands to procedural surfaces leads to converting them to a basic surface entity. DMEXTRUDE/DMREVOLVE extrudes and revolve curves, edges, planar entities and faces into 3D surfaces. DMDELETE removes holes (open loops) and faces from surfaces. DMSTITCH stitches a set of surfaces into a single entity of the specified type (3D solid or surface) or determines type automatically. DMTHICKEN converts a surface to a 3D solid with a specified thickness.

SHEET METAL is now an optional, extra-cost add-on module. Two new types of corner reliefs are supported: Circular and V-type. Feature Coloring assigns specific colors to faces of Sheet Metal features; controlled with the FEATURECOLORS system variable. Lofted Bend is a new kind of sheet metal feature that can be unfolded into a sequence of bends with parameters to control the number of bends and their configuration (quadrangular or triangular). SMLOFT constructs a sheet metal body with Lofted Bend Features and Flanges. SMCONVERT recognizesLofted Bend Features. SMBENDSWITCH converts a Bend Feature to a Lofted Bend Feature. SMREPAIR joins connected lofted bends which are surrounded by flanges and rebuilds them to be tangent to adjacent flanges (if any). SMRETHICKEN supports lofted surfaces. SMRELIEFSWITCH changes Corner Relief Features between Rectangular, V-type and Circular. SMSELECTHARDEDGES selects all hard edges in all models.

Oct 07, 2015

Final presentation of the day, and we have ceo Wilfred Graebert telling us how ARES Map came about. He surveys companies, asking if they use DWG files. If so, "then we talk." We have a competitive product that they can use to establish themselves in the market. "Sometimes it works."

When the discussions are getting "warmer," we discuss branding. Which brings him to a new partner, Esri -- the GIS people with 350,000 customers and the 200 largest US cities. For a couple of years the two firms have been working on integrating GIS and CAD.

Today he announces a new product: ARES Map: "CAD for GIS and GIS for CAD." Esri has CAD data that need to import data into GIS, or edit GIS data using a CAD interface that's more familiar.

ARES Map is based on ARES Commander, connects directly to ArcGIS servers and ArcGIS Online. Saves drawings in DWG format with GIS-enabled objects.

ARES Ma0 adds a GIS tab to the ribbon, as illustrated above. First step in using it, is to connect to one of Esri's many base map. Then connect to a map service, like maps of wild fires or wind turbines or water networks at the desired level of detail. Data connected to a place on the map is displayed in new GIS Data tab of the ARES Properties palette.

Data can be edited and sent back to the database; the process can be blocked for those users not permitted to make changes -- view-only. ARES Commander does extra checks to determine whether the changes are being made correctly. "It forces me to create good content."

Last year at its Annual Meeting, Graebert surprised us by announcing a 2D MCAD addon. This year's surprise is GIS.

More specifically, Graebert GmbH announced ARES Map is ArcGIS Online running on top of the company's ARES Commander desktop software. "Maps, floorplans, and any infrastructure created with ARES Map are saved natively in DWG, and also contain smart GIS-enabled information associated with entities," they say.

Lunch is over, and it's time to hear about SiteMaster by product manager Felix Graebert. SiteMaster is the quietly successful secondary business from Graebert, for cataloging the contents of buildings -- from measuring floor plans to designing kitchens. For example, Bank of America used it to survey 3,000 branches in the USA in eight months. Also,10 million square feet of government buildings for the City of Berlin.

Felix Graebert is arguing that mobile CAD is better for site measurements, as the data collection is more accurate.

The SiteMaster collection consists of

SiteMaster Building for 2D (still the most popular)

SiteMaster BIM for 3D

SiteMaster Kitchen for workflow

So now we are getting a demo of SiteMaster Kitchen. Measurements are made with a Bluetooth-connected laser measuring device. (I looked at getting one, but they cost $350. I settled for a non-Bluetooth model for $50.) Graebert argues that there is a 50% savings in taking measurements, and 70% savings in design -- over doing it by hand.

When using the Bluetooth measuring device, it enters the measured distance directly into the software. Not magically, of course. The way it works is like this:

When measuring ceiling height, for instance, you bring up the dialog box for this. Take the measurement, and the distance is filled into the current field of the dialog box. Accurate measurements are especially needed to determine if walls are 90 degrees or 89.5 degrees; if ceilings are of uniform height, or not.

With the measurements taken, SiteMaster generates 2D drawings and reports. The drawing data is imported into kitchen design software, like Carat, using a simple text-based format.

We're in Berlin this week for the annual Graebert meeting. Leading up to the conference, the company promises some surprises, and here they are.

Graebert GmbH is now the first CAD vendor that will be providing a drafting program on all viable platforms. I'm the one using the word "viable" to emphasize that the program doesn't run on platforms like Blackberry or Windows Mobile. The list now consists of the following OSes, in alphabetical order:

Android

iOS (iPhone and iPad)

Linux desktop

OS X (Macintosh)

Web browser (OS-independent)

Windows desktop

New to the list is iOS, meaning that their ARES Touch software is being ported from Android to iPhone and iPad. Not quite so new on the list is ARES Kudo for Web browsers, better known as the drafting component of Onshape.

Graebert's strength is OEM'ing its software, and here at the Annual Meeting it has announced the first OEMer of its ARES Touch software for tablets: CorelCAD Mobile will come out soon, and be linked to CorelCAD 2016: get a one year license of one, get the license for the other product free.

Back to Mr Desbordes taking about mobileCAD. Questions he gets asked about it:

1. How to ensure a good workflow for PCs?

2. Will users want to use a tablet for more than viewing?

3. Can I get enough precision on a tablet?

4. Are there features specific to tablets?

Let's see what kinds of answers he can provide.

1. To access files, ARES Touch has two primary folders, local and cloud. Some corporate users cannot use the cloud due to corporate security policies. Alternative to Dropbox is to copy files using a USB cable. Download files to the tablet, store them there, and they remained unsynchronized until the user deliberately chooses to do so. All references are changed to be relative to the file. Cloud refers to services like Dropbox and Google Drive. When connecting to, say, Dropbox, ARES Touch creates a new folder in Dropbox called /Applications/ARES Touch. Here you can put the files you want to access on the tablet, and to have synchronized automatically -- this allows you to access a subset of all files stored on Dropbox, speeding up access.

2. While most CAD apps for mobile are severely limited in their drawing and editing, Graebert is working through every single command in ARES for desktop, and seeing how to adapt them to the tablet environment.

(New on ARES 2016 is portrait mode, which switches the UI to upright orientation. This is probably most useful on phones -- or tall drawings.)

3. For precision, ARES Touch offers the Loupe, an enlarged area of the drawing under your finger, along with object snap modes.

4. Touching the screen to manipulate the view, and to manipulate entities. Touching to perform some operations is faster than moving the mouse into position, such as dragging on the screen during the PowerTrim command or tapping an area to hatch.

The ceo of Graebert Gmbh tells me that his emphasis is on OEM sales, not necessarily their ARES desktop software. OEM sales means that the ARES software is rebranded and perhaps even modified, and then sold by another company. The best known OEMs of ARES are:

Dassault Systemes rebrands ARES as DraftSight, with 8 million downloads and 3 million activations

Corel has CorelCAD, for creating CAD files used by all their other graphics software.

and so on. A third one OEMs ARES Kudo, the Web-based drafting package -- Onshape.

Cedric Desbordes is in charge of marketing at Graebert, and he's now telling us what his company is working at. (See photo at left.) They have taken a huge gamble in being the first to have full CAD on Android, and first full DWG-based CAD in Web browsers. In brief, they now offer:

ARES Commander - desktop Linux, Mac, and Windows

ARES Touch - Android, iPad, and iPhone mobile devices

ARES Kudo - Web browser

Much of the same API can be used on all three: LISP, C++, and DCL. Further, each platform has APIs specific, as illustrated below:

Graebert is pushing hard into mobile, because of the following statistics. Mobile is growing in a way that desktop isn't, as well as being overwhelming in total numbers:

He sees that tablets are now competing in the professional and business markets, where iPads and Microsoft tablets tend to dominate over Android. Microsoft has its new Surface 4 and Apple its new iPad Pro -- with Google catching up with its Pixel C keyboard-equipped tablet. In all case, the keyboard is sold separately, I note, ironically.

Mobile CAD is good for accessing your drawings "anywhere," for replacing paper. Mobile devices are lighter and always present; turning on and off is instant. Use tablets for presentations and informal meetings -- easier than a laptop. The camera and mic are useful for recording issues on-site. Can get emails with attachment from the office.

Okay, over the "cloud" or server-based CAD. The benefits for users, Mr Desbordes says, is that you can access files and do editing from "any" device, and makes it easier to share files. Features are always up to date, it is easier to collaborate on complex projects, and versioning can handle different design ideas with no limit in history.

Meanwhile, PCs will not be going away. They have a longer lifetime (phones get broken easily), and have a higher performance/value ratio than mobile devices. Works offline for confidentiality and areas with no Internet connectivity.

Alright, here we are in former East Berlin in the Soho House, a very retro pre-wall-fall building, up on the second floor. Here's what the digs look like:

The head of the company, Wilfred Graebert is reporting on company results. Growth is 30%, mostly from ARES and OEM business. Business in Japan has doubled, and Graebert is holding an event in Tokyo end of November. In India, the company has several offices supporting 50 resellers in India.

He is now describing Soho House, rebuilt for software firms and the art and design scene. Three unicorns are housed here -- startup firms that are worth more than a billion dollars. George Clooney stays here -- although fellow journalist Randall Newton says he hears that everywhere. This very room was the powerhouse of the German Democratic Republic, "East Germany." Originally built as a department store, was not destroyed in WWII, and so the Russians used it to set up the central committee of the communist party: "Politburo." After the wall came down, the building was given back to its original Jewish owners.

Oct 01, 2015

If two weeks ago was Prague, then next week is Berlin. We are looking forward to seeing what AutoCAD workalike powerhouse Graebert Gmbh is up to as they invite users and the media to Berlin, Germany for their annual conference. The significance: Graebert is second only to Autodesk in the number of DWG-based CAD users. That conference is happening Oct 7 and 8, and we plan to be there.

Then we're off to Munich to take in the annual Bricsys International Conference at the BMW World center, to see how the company is continuing to extend the DWG format in directions Autodesk never did. The significance: Bricsys has BIM and MCAD working on DWG. That conference is on Oct 13 and 14, and we plan to be there.

Finally, we slip into the Dassault Systemes Spatial conference to see what the kernel vendor has planned for its millions of customers. We have interviews lined up with executives from the company. That conference is Oct 14 and 15 in Munich, as we plan to be there.

BMW Welt this year hosts the Bricsys International Conference

Be sure to visit this WorldCAD Access blog our live coverage of the Graebert, Bricsys, and Spatial conferences.

Sep 22, 2015

We extend our summer break into the fall as we march off onto the conference circuit. If last week was Prague, then it must have been the Teigha Developer Conference put on for the second year in a row by the Open Design Alliance.

The next issue of upFront.eZine appears September 28 with our review of what was said at the conference about the state of Teigha and the ODA's plans for the API.

- - -

Join the 7,500 subscribers who enjoy reading about the business of CAD. Email 'subscribe' to grabowski@telus.net

Sep 07, 2015

Now we are hearing about Teigha Architecture, not Teigha's architecture, which we heard about before the break. This one is for architectural design planning and is an extension to Teigha Core: design a building model with intelligent objects, and then take 2D sections and elevations. The objects are compatible with AutoCAD Architecture, and so objects can be used in both programs.

(Intelligent objects are like walls, windows, and doors. They contain data that identifies the manufacturer, size, stock number, and so on. They are intelligent: if you move a wall, the embedded windows move with the wall. Styles define the appearance of windows, doors, etc. Changes made to the floor plan are updated in the 3D model, and vice versa.)

Teigha Architecture currently handles objects from versions 2000 through to 2016, 2D and 3D rendering for all architectural objects, display representation, object creation and modification, and snap and grip points.

Documentation objects include 2D sections, dimensions, schedule tables, and spcaes. I wouldtake a picture but the Prague sunlight is flooding the conference room's floor to ceiling windows.

Showing off Teigha Civil, after the sun went behind a cloud

Teigha Civil

Also an extension for Teigha Core, Civil is for civil engineering, like roads, bridges, and earthworks. Like Architecture, it is a SIG (special interest group) project, which means it is not an official programming project by ODA but of a group of interested ODA members.

It supports Civil objects between 2007 and 2016, renders supported objects, but creates only some objects. The SIG has many plans to improve it, such as transformations, recover corrupted projects, public API for data extraction, and a way to remove all Civil data from a DWG file.

To end the day, we are learning about a new SIG project that I cannot talk about for another year. It is currently in alpha status, but will fill as big a hole in the CAD industry as the ODA (and its predecessors) did for opening up DWG. Eventally it will cover 3,500 classes.

- - -

And that's it for the Teigha Developer Conference for 2015. Tomorrow is one-on-one meetings, and I'll report on them in an upcoming issue of upFront.eZine.

C3D is the fast moving 3D modeling kernel from Russia. No, not the one funded by the Russia government that no one uses (so I am told), but privately developed some 25 years ago for the KOMPAS-3D MCAD software by ASCON -- the largest CAD developer in Russia.

Couple of years ago, they decided to make the C3D kernel available generally, and formed a new division to adapt it to outside use, license it, and market it. As it now normal for ASCON, they spun it off as a separate division responsible for its own profits and losses. After two years, they have signed up 17 CAD vendors and universities inside and outside Russia, and now they have adapted it to Teigha.

Oleg Zykov from C3D Labs describing his kernel for Teigha

The full kernel licensed from C3D Labs consists of four modules: modeler (solid, surface, direct, sheel metal, etc), solver (2D, 3D constraints), converter (translations of public formats), and vision (rendering with materials and textures, lights, and level of detail).

The Teigha has limited functionality, because then it is easier to implement and you pay no royalties. It does only solid modeling: it is half way between the Teigha modeler and the ASCI modeler.

It will go into beta on December 3, and then distributed by the ODA itself. Flat license fee, no royalties. It runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Android, C++, and C#.

The primary purpose of the Open Design Alliance is to keep up with advancements in the DGN and DWG file formats. In addition, the technical organization branches out into other areas, like PDF import-export and other libraries, such as those from C3D Labs and Ledas.

A survey found that ODA members are most interested in the following future technologies:

TC uses LLG [low level graphics] metafile format that contains geometry and rendering instructions; users can create their own metafiles. The renderer uses NodeJS for Linux and ASP.Net on Windows; the functionality is similar and so users can switch between them.

Learning how Web services work with ODA

We are now getting a demo of the Web renderer with a 10MB drawing. You can specify the layout and the type of rendering, then it takes a few moments for the rendering to show up. Switching between rendering modes is instant, as is 3D rotation.

The presenter has the Web renderer working on his tablet, and will demo it later. Future pans include sockets support for communication with TxHost instances, and stream GS data to clients.

PDF Support

PRC is short for "product representation compact," and not People's Republic of China. It is a file format that encapsulates 3D PDF, and just last December became an ISO standard.

The great thing for programmers end users about formats becoming ISO standards is that the format is fixed. For programmers, they are no longer chasing a moving target; for end users, they no longer need to purchase software updates. In the case of PDF files, old versions, like Acrobat 9, work just fine. Same for DOCX files: no need to ever get another update to Word. This is probably why Autodesk refuses to make DWG an ISO standard.

ODA supports PDF import and export inside of Teigha. I asked why write their own, instead of using an existing library. The problems with licensing someone else's library are lack of control, and complexity: drawings need to be exported far more accurately than other kinds of documents, and so writing their own code gives the ODA better control over the process involving complexity of drawings.

Alright, here we are in beautiful Prague. Geographically, we are in Prague 6, the diplomatic area where many embassies are located, just north of Prague Castle. No wonder the hotel we're in is the Diplomat Hotel.

I am here along with fellow CAD journalist Randall Newton, typing madly to keep up with the 16 presentations today, a new one every 20-30 minutes. As Randall says, we have to remember that this is a developer conference, not a user conference. This means that some of the things we hear about we cannot report.

(Before I forget, my disclosure statement: The ODA paid for my airfare to Europe and my hotel accommodation in Prague, as well as meals today.)

ODA president Neil Peterson keynoting the developer conference

It is interesting to listen to the presentations, as I learn how some of the internals work. For example, to put a box around MText, DWG uses extended entity data.

Teigha Platform: Status and Future Plans

"Today," began ODA president Neil Peterson, "we are no longer just an import-export library." Teigha is a full development framework, upon which CAD systems can be built, including custom aware objects built on the extensible object model. Tiered royalty-free licensing, starting $100 a year for start-ups.

Getting close to 20 years old, the ODA is father to thousands of applications developed by 1,200 members that are being used by millions. The effect is laddering, as those who build CAD systems on Teigha are now seeing vertical apps being added by third-party developers.

"We are a development organization," said Mr Peterson, "and the qualities that guide our organization are:

Quality

Transparency (we publish our plans every six months)

Accessibility (chances are you will be able to speak to the guy who wrote the code), and

Agility using a scrum-based rapid development process."

ODA uses VMware to manage the visualization of all the platforms and configurations and compilers at a professionally-managed data center in Arizona. We're talking variants of Windows and Linux, and versions of OS X, Android, and iOS.

In addition to providing Teigha for DWG and DGN files, the ODA has integrated optional libraries. This is done as a convenience for members, who can optionally use them but pay for them separately:

ACIS modeling from Dasault Spatial

C3D modeling kernel from ASCON C3D Labs

HOOPS export from Techsoft 3D

Real-time ray tracing from Redway3D

Additional PDF functions from Visual Integrity

Constraints and parametrics from LEDAS and Siemens PLM (also constraints and parameters).

Strategic directions for the ODA include... - Strengthening the core platform - Expanding the platform to Teigha Cloud and PRC (3D PDF) - Adding special interest groups"We provide a technology, not a service," concluded Mr Peterson. "We don't want to lock customers into a service; [for instance], we want them to build their own cloud technology."

We have to remember that Autodesk originally did not provide access to DWG files, insisting instead that DXF was sufficient, even though 3D modeling data in DXF was encrypted. Only after the ODA was established did Autodesk suddenly come up with its own DWG API. So, thank the ODA for getting Autodesk to open up.